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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §22.5.13.pr

Competence of Calumniators and Credibility of Testimony

Passage 3266 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Addressing whether those condemned for false accusation can testify in public trials, the text states that while no law explicitly forbids it, judges must use their conscience to carefully weigh the credibility of all testimony.

[PAPINIANUS libro primo de adulteriis. ] §22.5.13.prQuaesitum scio, an in publicis iudiciis calumniae damnati testimonium iudicio publico perhibere possunt.
[PAPINIAN, On Adulteries, Book 1.] I know that the question has been raised whether those condemned for false accusation in public trials can give testimony in a public trial.
sed neque lege Remmia prohibentur et Iulia lex de ui et repetendarum et peculatus eos homines testimonium di cere non uetuerunt.
But they are neither prohibited by the Remmian law, nor did the Julian law on violence and the laws on extortion and embezzlement forbid those men to give testimony.
uerumtamen quod legibus omissum est, non omittitur religione iudicantium ad quorum officium pertinet eius quoque testimonii fidem, quod integrae frontis homo dixerit, perpendere.
Nevertheless, what has been omitted by the laws is not omitted by the religious conscientiousness of the judges, to whose duty it pertains to weigh the credibility even of that testimony which a man of unimpeached character has given.

Notes

  1. §22.5.13.prquaesitum scio — This forms an accusative with infinitive construction with quaesitum [esse] as the object of scio. The following an clause is an indirect question, which here takes the indicative possunt instead of the classical subjunctive possint.
  2. §22.5.13.pruetuerunt — Although the grammatical subject Iulia lex is singular, the verb uetuerunt is plural. This is a construction according to sense (ad sensum), as multiple laws (on violence, extortion, and embezzlement) are collectively understood as the subject.
  3. §22.5.13.printegrae frontis — A genitive of quality modifying homo. Literally "of an untouched forehead", it refers to a person of unimpeached character or integrity, contrasting with criminals who were branded (stigma) on their foreheads in ancient Rome.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §22.5.13.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:22.5.13.pr

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